Week 24- First Full Week In Japan

Aloha 皆さん、 If you don't join my Google photos album you're an opp (ノ-_-)ノ~┻━┻ https://photos.app.goo.gl/2tYzpjfjReZvcoCs7

OK wow it's been a week already. Let's catch everyone up to speed. I was home for 6 months, half of which was a visa (skill) issue. I hit a 225+ bench while I was home which feels small after the fact (road to 315) but I digress. I was able to do a lot of things like go to the temple, work at the bishop's storehouse and spend time with family which was nice. BUT I am honestly so happy to be in Japan ITS GREAT. Everyone here is so nice, the members are awesome and the missionaries are all such hard workers! The mission here is a little different than in Utah. In Utah we covered two stakes and 18 wards and everyone had a basic understanding of Jesus Christ and who we were so it was very straightforward. Here though everyone knows Jesus Christ's name but not about why he's so famous or what he did for us. It's also super weird if we just go up to them right off the bat talking about Jesus. So instead we get the chance to build a relationship with them and get to know them more personally. From a background standpoint I love it, I love getting to know more about people and really getting to know them first. But after being in the Orem mission it feels kinda weird. Actually a lot of things feel weird after experiencing such a direct mission like the Orem mission. Like finding in Japan as well is heavily reliant on social media. We have these two apps in particular called hellotalk and tandem which are language exchange apps. On those apps there are people who are fluent in Japanese that want to learn English and so on, so we go on and kinda befriend them and invite them to activities and then kinda talk a little bit more about what we do and invite them to church. It's super interesting and kinda hard but definitely a lot of fun! Highlights: -Food -Zone Conference -PMG Master -なつまつり -My first talk in Japanese FOOD:

Yeah I'm in love frfr. I'm enjoying all the snacks and food while I'm here because it's literally the best and so cheap. I'm not going too crazy though everything is in balance (except the one day I had like 4 ice creams, they're seriously sp low calorie) if you wanna see the type of foods I'm eating though just join the Google photos I'll probably Post everything yummy on there fr. Zone conference: Zone conference was really fun. The APs gave a good training on different ways to introduce ourselves and the mission President gave us this mission wide challenge to read the Book of Mormon twice within 2-3 transfers each time highlighting a different thing. Which is crazy but it'll be super fun. We also played missionary baseball which was super fun, our zone dominated it was like 18-4 I think. I got to meet some more missionaries here and a lot of them are super cool people. We also had this custard strawberry shortcake dessert that was so gas that I forgot to take a picture.

PMG Master: So in the Orem mission we are heavily reliant on Preach my gospel (missionary app used for notes on members and friends) because it's so useful. You can write notes on the people you are teaching, give an overview of the lesson you taught. It just makes missionary life easier. Well in Japan because of privacy laws PMG low-key is useless so a lot of missionaries here don't even know what certain functions are. So because it was so crucial during my reassignment I was searching through PMG for old dots (profiles) to see if there was anybody worth contacting or people we could reach out to. That was a huge success because there were a couple people that were progressing so well that were just forgotten about whether that be because of transfers or miscommunication or just missionaries being super busy. We've already gotten into contact with a few of them and set up some activities to get back into contact! なつまつり: This week we had a summer festival planned and it was a huge hit. A bunch of members brought their kids and they absolutely loved it. It was a lot of fun and a good way to interact with the members and their kids. I invited two of our friends to come one low-key left right away which was sad but the other stayed the entire time and talked to a lot of the members which was hype. My first talk in Japanese: So the bishop asked me to bear my testimony because I'm new in the ward. I was like OK yeah sure no stress. Yeah I was stressed but I had so many ideas in my head and when I was going through the sentences out loud it seemed simple enough. But then when I got up there everything just went poof, blank, gone. It wasn't terrible but it gave me a deep appreciation for being able to bear my testimony in English when I can because it's SOOOOO much easier. Some people told me my testimony was good too but there's a lot I wanna say that I couldn't. Lowlights: I haven't done this I think but there were a few I felt the need to share. -Friends bailed on church -Feeling ineffective So yeah this past week we had 4 friends that we invited to church and only one was able to come. Low-key last second the other 3 bailed which was super sad but the one who did come Yamamoto san was able to meet a bunch of members and stayed for the entire two hours and enjoyed it. Hopefully the other 3 are able to come next week! Wish me luck :) Feeling ineffective: My Japanese isn't terrible but there's just so many times when there's a lot more I really want to say but I literally can't. Or when people talk I feel hindered because I can understand some of it but kinda have to guess. It's kinda hard and sometimes my brain really hurts after a long day of talking in Japanese all day but I'm working on it. This past week definitely felt kinda useless without my companion because of the language barrier. But we thug it out I just hope my luggage comes soon because literally all my study materials are in thereヽ(　`Д´)ﾉ This week's scripture I want to share though is from Ether 12 27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. Sometimes we want to do everything ourselves and think we can. But if we turn to God and humble ourselves he will male our weaknesses become our strengths. I can truly testify of this because my whole mission has been a humbling experience. But when we have faith and come to God with a humble and open heart he will help us become better. He will help us rid ourselves of our weaknesses. We are not perfect and can never be perfect and God shows us this so that we know that THROUGH him we CAN become strong. OK all done Shoots! エリス長老 TheRisingSon